The report examined the rapid growth for e-commerce that it expects to continue in Southeast Asia. Banks are themselves increasingly part of the e-commerce trend, as well.

A DBS study of e-commerce in Southeast Asia – a field that touches on sectors including financial services – says sales will more than double from $184 billion in 2024 to $410 billion by 2030, a 14 per cent compound annual growth rate.

The sector is entering its next phase, marked by a shift towards profitability, an emphasis on customer experience and more sustainable, credit-backed growth, the DBS Nextwave Southeast Asia 2025 report said. The study is the first edition in a new series exploring Asia’s digital economy. (It was produced in partnership with market data and insights firm Cube.)

E-commerce sales in Southeast Asia increased 46 times from $4 billion to $184 billion between 2012 to 2024, showing that more consumers embraced this route as their preferred channel.

Across Asia as a whole, China-based Alibaba is the largest, and the world’s biggest B2B e-commerce marketplace; it also operates e-commerce sites such as AliExpress, TMall, and Taoba. In Southeast Asia, prominent platforms include Shopee; Lazada; Tokopedia; Blibli; Orami; Carousell; Bachhoaxanh; Mudah; Tiki; Bukalapak; and Amazon (source: TMO Group, 4 July, 2024).

Banks are themselves increasingly part of the e-commerce trend, offering merchant accounts, working capital solutions, payment processing and fraud prevention. Banks also use e-commerce data to work out what clients want to spend money on and invest in. 

A related area is open banking – where third-party developers can access customer financial data and initiate payments, integrating them into e-commerce platforms. Open banking can power different kinds of payment services, such as payments in video games or business accounting apps.

Singapore-headquartered DBS has been part of the open banking trend, for example. In December 2020 – as jurisdictions worldwide were wrestling with the pandemic – the lender said it would use AI and introduce SGFinDex, a public-private open banking initiative, to make its personalised financial and retirement planning solution DBS NAV Planner available to all Singapore residents.